SmartBirds
In early June Volen Arkumarev from BSPB/BirdLife Bulgaria attended the EAZA Conservation Forum hosted by Ostrava Zoo in Czech Republic. The forum is organized every second year and this time gathered over 120 participants from over 60 zoos, breeding centers and NGOs from Europe but also guests from Africa, Asia, North and South America.
BSPB presented the results and the remarcable success of the Egyptian Vulture Reinforcement program, which has been implemented in Bulgaria by us in collaboration with Green Balkans, Prague Zoo and EAZA since 2018. In the frame of this program captive-bred Egyptian Vultures raised in various zoos in Europe are released in Bulgaria in an attempt to recover the Balkan population of this endangered species, which numbers less than 60 pairs. The Egyptian Vulture Reinforcement program is a story of success, and so far, 5 released individuals reached maturity and already occupied breeding territories in the wild. These impressive results attracted the attention of the delegates at the forum and provoked an intriguing discussion about the role of zoos in the implementation of successful recovery programs for rare species. This year the hosts from Ostrava zoo provided two young Egyptian Vultures for our programme – Adela and Sylva, which were already released and are not roaming free in the wild nature of Eastern Rhodopes.
The speakers at the forum presented the active involvement of the zoos in various conservation programs under implementation in Europe, Asia, Africa and elsewhere. They presented also innovations in conservation, results from scientific studies, inspirational talks and the overall strategy of EAZA for wildlife conservation and collaboration with nature conservation NGOs.
The Restocking programme has been implemented under the “From Iron Curtain to Green Belt: restoring ecological networks in Southeast Bulgaria” project, funded by the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme (ELSP) that is managed by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative – a collaboration between the Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge of The Old Schools and leading internationally-focused biodiversity conservation organisations. The University and the ELSP are supported by Arcadia – a charitable fund of Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing..
